By Marta Alizeh. Football family biographies. Article last substantively updated: September 23, 2026.
The Bukayo Saka family story starts with two people who left Nigeria in the 1990s with nothing guaranteed. Yomi and Adenike Saka settled in Ealing, west London, raised two sons on faith and Yoruba values, and drove 18 miles each way to a north London academy for years. One of those sons became an England international and an Arsenal first-team regular. This article brings together publicly reported information about his parents, his older brother, his Nigerian heritage, and his upbringing.
On the night of July 11, 2021, Bukayo Saka walked up to take the fifth penalty at Wembley.
He was 19 years old. His parents were in the stadium. He hit the ball. Italy’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved it. England lost their first major final in 55 years.
In the minutes that followed, Saka sat on the pitch and sobbed. His parents watched from the stands. And somewhere across London, across England, and across the internet, a section of people who had cheered for him all summer picked up their phones and began sending him racist abuse.
He knew it was coming. He said so himself afterwards. “I knew instantly the type of hate that I was about to receive.”
His parents knew too.
That night is central to the Saka family story. His parents had left Nigeria in the 1990s, built a life in Ealing, and raised their son on faith and Yoruba values. At 19, he took a penalty in a major final, and afterwards a section of the public sent him racist abuse.
Quick Bio Table
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Bukayo Ayoyinka Temidayo Moses Saka |
| Date of birth | September 5, 2001 |
| Age | 25 |
| Birthplace | Ealing, Greater London, England |
| Nationality | British (English) |
| Heritage | Yoruba Nigerian |
| Position | Right winger |
| Current club | Arsenal FC (No. 7) |
| Father | Yomi Saka, businessman, from Ogun State, Nigeria |
| Mother | Adenike Saka (née Ogunremi), chartered accountant, from Ijomu-Oro, Kwara State |
| Brother | Abayomi “Yomi” Saka, older brother, former Watford youth player |
| Fiancée | Tolami Adeola Benson, PR executive (engaged November 2025) |
| Religion | Christian |
| 2025-26 season | Premier League champion with Arsenal; Champions League finalist |
| 2026 World Cup | Third place with England; hat-trick in the 6-4 bronze-final win over France |
| Article last updated | September 23, 2026 |
Who is Bukayo Saka?
Bukayo Saka is an English professional footballer who plays as a right winger for Arsenal and the England national team. Born in Ealing, London, in 2001 to Yoruba Nigerian parents, he joined Arsenal at seven, debuted at 16, and helped the club win the 2025-26 Premier League. He is a regular for the England national team and one of Arsenal’s most important attackers.
Who are Bukayo Saka’s parents?
Bukayo Saka’s parents are Yomi Saka, his father, and Adenike Saka, his mother, both Yoruba Nigerians who emigrated to London in the 1990s. His father is a businessman from Ogun State in southwest Nigeria. His mother, born Adenike Ogunremi, is a chartered accountant from Ijomu-Oro in Kwara State. Their professions and origins have been reported by EssentiallySports and other outlets.
Both left Nigeria as economic migrants and settled in Ealing, west London. They chose to migrate, Saka has said, because they were “worried about the life awaiting their unborn children” in Nigeria at the time.
Yomi and Adenike are devout Christians who raised their family in a strong faith environment. They sent Bukayo to Edward Betham Church of England Primary School in Northolt. Saka has repeatedly credited his parents with values including hard work, humility, and gratitude when he speaks about his upbringing.
Bukayo put it plainly to The Guardian. “Both are working-class and filled me with the things you need to get along. You can take those lessons in your personal life and social life, but also into football: not giving up, working hard and if you want something, putting in the graft to go and get it.”
Who is Yomi Saka, his father?
Yomi Saka is Bukayo Saka’s father, a Nigerian-born businessman of Yoruba heritage who moved to London in the 1990s. He is a private man. He does not give interviews, and his specific business interests have never been reported in detail. He now lives in Hertfordshire.
What he gave his son was more specific than a career. Yomi was a huge Arsène Wenger admirer. When Bukayo was being scouted as a boy and had options at several London clubs, it was his father’s conviction about Arsenal that shaped the decision.
Bukayo explained it himself on Sky Sports. “Arsenal was the one I always wanted to go to. It seemed like they had a lot of faith in their youth and there was a clear pathway. My dad also really believed in the project and he loved Arsène Wenger a lot. So I think Arsenal was the club in the hearts of my family, so we chose them.”
Saka had sessions at Chelsea and Tottenham, and both wanted him. His father steered the family toward Hale End because of a manager he admired. Wenger never actually coached Bukayo, having left Arsenal in 2018, when Saka was 16. Even so, the club his father chose is the one where Saka came through, and in May 2026 it ended a 22-year wait for the Premier League title.
Who is Adenike Saka, his mother?
Adenike Saka is Bukayo Saka’s mother, and she has the more publicly documented professional background of his two parents. She is reported to have studied veterinary medicine at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria before moving to London, where she retrained in accounting and earned a diploma from the University of West London.
She is reported to have worked in accounting and project roles, including at O2 and Telefónica, after arriving in the UK. She rebuilt her professional identity in a new country, moving as an economic migrant and building a career in accountancy in London.
Her family’s roots are in Ijomu-Oro, Kwara State. That is where Bukayo has visited his grandparents. It is the ancestral home his mother came from, and a place the family still points to on a map of Nigeria.
The letter Adenike and Yomi wrote to mark Bukayo’s 2026 Arsenal contract renewal was one of the more striking public family moments of the year. Their words spoke of “hearts overflowing with pride” and made clear that for them “success is not measured only in achievements but in character.” Saka read it out on camera, visibly moved.
Does Bukayo Saka have siblings?
Yes. Bukayo Saka has one older brother, Abayomi Saka, who is usually known as Yomi, the same short form as their father. Bukayo is the younger of the two sons.
Abayomi is two years older than Bukayo. In England Football’s “Origins” feature, Saka described the two brothers playing matches in the back garden as boys, with their father going in goal. Abayomi also played organised football: according to SportsBrief, he was a defender in Watford’s youth academy until around the age of 14, then chose education and later attended university in Reading. Some earlier profiles left the brother out, but Saka has spoken about him himself.
The family of four, Yomi, Adenike, Abayomi, and Bukayo, settled in Ealing and later Northolt in west London, about five miles from Wembley stadium.
What does the name Bukayo actually mean?
Bukayo Saka’s full registered name is Bukayo Ayoyinka Temidayo Moses Saka. Every part of it is Yoruba except “Moses,” which comes from the family’s Christian faith.
Bukayo means “adds to happiness.” Ayoyinka translates as “joy surrounds me.” Temidayo means “mine has turned to happiness.” Three of his four given names reference joy or happiness in Yoruba, and the fourth, Moses, comes from the family’s Christian faith.
He has spoken about the name with real pride. “My name is Bukayo Moses Ayoyinka Temidayo Saka. I am very proud of it. Both my parents grew up in Nigeria, so many of their values have been instilled in me.”
Where did Saka grow up and what was it like?
Bukayo Saka grew up in Ealing and Northolt in west London, a diverse, working-class area about five miles from Wembley stadium. He attended Edward Betham Church of England Primary School and then Greenford High School. England Football’s grassroots profile of Saka traces his football back to games in Greenford and to his first organised club, Greenford Celtic.
At Greenford High, he achieved four A*s and three As in his GCSEs. His parents put enormous value on education, and getting those grades while training at Arsenal’s Hale End academy and playing for local club Greenford Celtic took a discipline most teenagers do not have.
Hale End is Arsenal’s youth academy, based in Chingford, northeast London. It has produced Tony Adams, Ashley Cole, Jack Wilshere, and, eventually, Bukayo Saka. He joined at seven years old and has never played professionally for any other club. The distance between Ealing and Chingford is about 18 miles. His parents made that journey for training sessions and matches, for years. That is what Saka was thinking about when he wrote, after the Euro 2020 final, about “seeing my family in the crowd, knowing what they’ve given up to help me get there.”
Why did Saka choose England over Nigeria?
Bukayo Saka chose to represent England despite deep Nigerian roots on both sides of his family. His name is Yoruba. His grandparents’ home is in Kwara State. He visits them there and has been photographed doing so. In 2023, he admitted he was “very close to playing for one of the youth teams” in Nigeria in 2019 and described that route as “the wish of my father.”
He chose England anyway. He explained the decision in March 2021. “Choosing Nigeria over England would be a tough decision. My whole family has been in England like forever. It would be very strange for me to adapt to an environment that I had never been in since growing up. When I grew up all my documents stated that I am English. Hopefully Nigerian people will understand.”
He added in 2023: “I feel very much Nigerian and nothing can change that.” He is English. He feels Nigerian. His identity holds both, and he has never pretended otherwise.
Arsenal’s historic 2025-26 season: Premier League title and Champions League final
Bukayo Saka won the Premier League with Arsenal in 2025-26, the club’s first top-flight title in 22 years and their 14th championship overall. Arsenal finished on 85 points, seven clear of Manchester City, sealing the title with a match to spare, per the 2025-26 Premier League final standings. The club Wenger built had not won the league since its 2003-04 “Invincibles” season. His father Yomi steered the family toward Arsenal all those years earlier because he trusted Wenger’s philosophy, and the wait finally ended with Bukayo himself in the team.
Arsenal also reached the UEFA Champions League final for only the second time in their history. They came through Bayer Leverkusen, Sporting Lisbon, and Atlético Madrid in the knockout rounds before losing the final to Paris Saint-Germain on May 30, 2026. As the UEFA match record shows, the game ended 1-1 after extra time and PSG won 4-3 on penalties. Arsenal ended a 22-year league drought in the same season they suffered Champions League final heartbreak on penalties, a result Saka knows something about.
Saka contributed around 7 goals and 6 assists across 31 appearances before an Achilles injury ended his domestic season early, so he did not play in the final. The family who drove 18 miles to Hale End and back for years watched the greatest Arsenal season in two decades, one trophy won and one lost in a shootout.
The Euro 2020 penalty miss: what the family went through
The Euro 2020 final is remembered mainly as a football result. For the Saka family, it was also a personal moment. On July 11, 2021, Gareth Southgate sent Saka up to take England’s fifth penalty in the shootout against Italy at Wembley. He was 19. He had not taken a senior penalty before in a match that mattered. Donnarumma saved it. Italy won. England lost.
Saka wrote on Instagram a few days later. “There are no words to tell you how disappointed I was with the result and my penalty. I really believed we would win this for you. I’m sorry we couldn’t bring it home for you this year.”
What came next was not just disappointment. It was uglier than that. Monkey emojis. Racial slurs. An avalanche of messages on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook targeting Saka, Marcus Rashford, and Jadon Sancho. All three had missed penalties. All three are Black. The abuse was immediate, coordinated in places, and not taken down quickly enough by the platforms.
Saka had expected it. “I knew instantly the type of hate that I was about to receive. That is a sad reality.” His parents were in the stands at Wembley when it started. Saka had written in his statement about “seeing my family in the crowd, knowing what they’ve given up to help me get there.” That line was the most personal part of the statement. Everything his parents had sacrificed, the migration from Nigeria, the years of the Hale End commute, the giving up of career ambitions, had built to that moment. And part of the nation’s response to that moment was racism.
He came back. He took another penalty at the 2022 World Cup and scored it. At Euro 2024, England lost the final again, and racist abuse followed again. Tortoise Media found monkey emojis on his Instagram profile within hours of the final whistle, and some posts stayed up for over 24 hours. Each time, he has said it will not break him. His parents have said nothing publicly about any of it. They don’t have to. Saka’s England teammate Jude Bellingham has carried a version of the same pressure, and the Bellingham family story shows how a footballing household absorbs that kind of scrutiny.
Who is Tolami Benson, his fiancée?
Tolami Adeola Benson is Bukayo Saka’s fiancée. He proposed in November 2025 at a luxury hotel in London after five years together.
She is originally from Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and studied at Birmingham City University. She worked at Harrods before building a career in public relations, eventually becoming a senior planning executive at Zenith, a London media agency. They have been together since around 2020 but kept the relationship private for years. Their first public moment came at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where she was photographed embracing him in the stands after an England group-stage match. She then became more visible at major fixtures, always as a supporter in the crowd rather than a WAG performing for cameras.
At Euro 2024 she drew wide media attention. She wore a personalised motor jacket featuring his academy number, 87, and shared a pitch-side kiss with him after England’s draw with Slovenia. Vogue wrote about her, and Capital XTRA compared her to Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Cole.
A source quoted by The Sun described the proposal as something Saka planned meticulously. “Bukayo went all out for the proposal. The ring he chose is absolutely enormous. He’d organised a special night at a top London hotel and proposed there.”
They are both of Nigerian heritage, and she keeps her own life private. The engagement was reported in late November 2025. When asked about wedding planning ahead of the 2026 World Cup, Tolami made her priorities clear: “Let’s get the World Cup out of the way first.” A wedding date has not been publicly announced.
Bukayo Saka’s faith and what the Bible means to him
Bukayo Saka is a committed Christian, raised in a strong faith environment by two devout parents. He attended a Church of England primary school. He prays before matches.
In a British GQ feature about the ten things he cannot live without, the first item he showcased was the Bible. “I am proud of my faith and it means a lot to me. It’s given me a platform to talk about the things I believe in and to use football to help people.”
Saka has said his faith helped him through the period after the Euro 2020 final. His first public statement after the racist abuse referenced God’s plan rather than anger. He has spoken about Christianity in interviews and described the Bible as important to him.
Bukayo Saka’s injury and the 2026 World Cup
Bukayo Saka reached the 2026 World Cup after a long run of injuries. He had hamstring problems in 2024 and 2025, then sustained an Achilles injury during Arsenal’s Carabao Cup final in March 2026 that carried into the summer. Thomas Tuchel still named him in England’s squad, and he came off the bench in the early games as his fitness returned.
Saka sat out the semi-final, a 1-2 loss to Argentina, to protect his fitness, then started the third-place playoff. There he scored a hat-trick in a 6-4 win over France, sending England past Kylian Mbappé’s France to the bronze medal. FIFA’s official report and ESPN carry the results. For the Saka family, who drove 18 miles each way to his academy for years, it meant watching their son finish a World Cup on the podium.
Interesting facts about the Bukayo Saka family
- Bukayo’s older brother Abayomi played as a defender in Watford’s youth academy until about 14, then chose education over football and went on to university in Reading.
- Three of Bukayo’s four given names, Bukayo, Ayoyinka, and Temidayo, all reference joy or happiness in Yoruba. The fourth, Moses, comes from the family’s Christian faith.
- His mother Adenike trained as a vet at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, then rebuilt her career as a chartered accountant in London.
- His father Yomi picked Arsenal for him partly out of admiration for Arsène Wenger, a manager who left the club before Bukayo ever played a senior minute.
- The family home is about five miles from Wembley, yet his parents drove roughly 18 miles each way to the Hale End academy in Chingford for years.
- Bukayo scored his penalty at the 2022 World Cup, after missing the decisive one in the Euro 2020 final shootout.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are Bukayo Saka’s parents? Bukayo Saka’s parents are Yomi Saka, a businessman from Ogun State, Nigeria, and Adenike Saka, a chartered accountant from Ijomu-Oro in Kwara State, Nigeria. Both are Yoruba and moved to London in the 1990s as economic migrants, settling in Ealing. They are devout Christians who raised Bukayo and his older brother Abayomi around faith, education, and Yoruba values.
Does Bukayo Saka have siblings? Yes. Bukayo Saka has one older brother, Abayomi Saka, who is two years his senior. In an England Football feature, Saka recalled playing backyard matches against Abayomi as a boy. Abayomi later played as a defender in Watford’s youth academy until about 14 before choosing education over a professional career.
What is Bukayo Saka’s family background? Bukayo Saka’s family background is Yoruba Nigerian. His parents emigrated from Nigeria to west London in the 1990s and raised him in Ealing and Northolt in a Christian, education-focused household. His father comes from Ogun State and his mother from Kwara State, and Bukayo has visited his grandparents’ ancestral home in Ijomu-Oro.
Where is Bukayo Saka from? Bukayo Saka was born on September 5, 2001, in Ealing, Greater London, and grew up in Ealing and Northolt in west London, about five miles from Wembley. He joined Arsenal’s Hale End academy at seven and has represented England since youth level. His family heritage is Nigerian.
Why did Saka choose England over Nigeria? Bukayo Saka chose England because he was born and raised in London and his documentation identified him as English, even though his father reportedly wanted him to play for Nigeria’s youth team in 2019. He said in 2021: “My whole family has been in England like forever.” He added in 2023: “I feel very much Nigerian and nothing can change that.”
Is Bukayo Saka engaged? Yes. Bukayo Saka proposed to Tolami Benson in November 2025 at a luxury hotel in London, after around five years together. Tolami is a PR executive who studied at Birmingham City University and works at the media agency Zenith. A wedding date has not been announced, and Tolami said the plan was to “get the World Cup out of the way first.”
Conclusion
Bukayo Saka’s story is a family story before it is a football story. Two Nigerian parents left home in the 1990s, worried about the lives their children might have, and built a new one in west London. They chose a church school, an academy 18 miles away, and a set of values Bukayo still repeats word for word. An older brother tried football first, then stepped aside for books. A father’s admiration for one manager pointed a seven-year-old toward the club he would help make champions.
The hardest night came in 2021, when a section of the country answered his sacrifice with racism while his parents watched from the stands. He answered it with grace, then with goals, and by the summer of 2026 he was scoring a World Cup hat-trick for a bronze medal. This article reflects information as of September 23, 2026, and will be substantively updated, not just date-stamped, as new verified information about the Bukayo Saka family emerges.
Sources and References
Family and upbringing: EssentiallySports on Yomi and Adenike Saka; SportsBrief on his brother Abayomi’s Watford spell; England Football’s “Origins” grassroots feature; Bukayo Saka public biography; and interviews Saka gave to The Guardian and Sky Sports.
Career and club: Arsenal FC official site; 2025-26 Premier League final standings; and the UEFA Champions League final record.
England and the 2026 World Cup: FIFA bronze-final report; ESPN semi-final result; and Capital XTRA on the engagement.
About the author: Marta Alizeh writes long-form football family biographies for TheCelebrityFamily.com, focused on the parents, siblings, and origins behind the game’s biggest names. Each article is built from the subject’s own interviews, official club and federation records, and established journalism, then reviewed and re-dated when the facts change. Article last substantively updated: September 23, 2026.
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